Out of Africa 1985

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: My basic problem with this otherwise sumptuous and well-acted film is that I never was able to accept Redford in character. Read more

Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times: Streep may convince us utterly that she is in love with Africa, but our views of it are a little too stately to really feel the place. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: The relationship of Karen and Denys is a prickly and, despite the era in which it is set, curiously modern one. It's also at the heart of this understated movie. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Sydney Pollack applies craftsmanship and restraint to a classic plot curve of longing, fulfillment, and loss, and although the denouement is a bit overextended, he never yields to facile, insistent sentimentality -- his effects are honestly won. Read more

Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News: The relationship between Karen Blixen and her British lover, Denys Finch Hatton, may fail to catch fire. But the production itself is so exquisitely served that you can't help but be grateful for this extraordinary visual treat. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: With the exception of Miss Streep's performance, the pleasures of Out of Africa are all peripheral -- David Watkin's photography, the landscapes, the shots of animal life -all of which would fit neatly into a National Geographic layout. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It tells a grand love story in less-than-grand fashion but is nevertheless worth seeing because of all the other things it does right. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Out of Africa is a great movie to look at, breathtakingly filmed on location. It is a movie with the courage to be about complex, sweeping emotions, and to use the star power of its actors without apology. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Out of Africa is, at last, the free-spirited, fullhearted gesture that everyone has been waiting for the movies to make all decade long. It reclaims the emotional territory that is rightfully theirs. Read more

Chris Peachment, Time Out: For all that it may come out of Africa, the film's final destination is not many miles from Disneyland. Read more

James Harwood, Variety: Maybe the problem of the pacing is simply the nature of the beast these days with expensive period pieces. Once the difficult details are all in place, it may be too much to expect a director to resist milking every scene for more than it's worth. Read more